10 Years of The Ride Companion
Ten years ago, I recorded the first version of this podcast from my bedroom in my parents house without a proper microphone, any broadcasting experience or much idea what I was doing...
At the time, I was struggling financially, driving around the country trying to sell to bike shops and listening to podcasts to keep myself motivated. Starting one of my own wasn’t some grand attempt to build a media company. It was supposed to be a simple marketing tool for HKT Products.
More than 460 episodes later, that terrible bedroom recording has somehow become The Ride Companion!
The podcast now has a production team, a studio (hopefully a new one), brand partners, live events, Warner’s Race Companion and a community of listeners around the world. It has also become the foundation for TRC Media House and the beginnings of a wider podcast network.
Starting a bike podcast with zero experience
The first episode was exactly as bad as you would expect. I didn’t own a microphone, understand audio production or know how to conduct an interview. I recorded it from my bedroom and proudly sent it to my HKT business partners for feedback.
Their response was brutal. “This is lame. It’s crap. Nobody is ever going to listen to this.”They weren’t really wrong, either. That first episode thank fully has never seen the light of day. I deleted it and sent on the podcast idea for a month or two.
Anyways, my stubbornness kicked back in. Most podcasts never make it beyond their first few episodes because gaining an audience takes far longer than people expect. The amount of work required to reach the first 50, 100 or 1,000 listeners can feel completely disproportionate to the result. The only way to discover what something might become is to remain in the game long enough for opportunities to appear. You gotta stay in the game.
The first signs that an audience was growing.
Slowly, there were little moments that suggested the podcast might have a future. The first proper guest episode received around 2,000 downloads, which felt enormous. Then Danny Hart contacted me and asked if he could appear on the podcast.
If Danny Hart—one of the biggest names in downhill mountain biking was listening, perhaps there really was something here. There were other important milestones. I learned more about interviewing through conversations with riders like Luca Shaw. I travelled to Crankworx without much money and tried to make the most of every day and conversation. When Danny MacAskill shared the podcast, I remember coming downstairs in tears because it felt like some kind of verification.
The Lockdown Companion story
The pandemic could easily have ended the podcast. Instead, it helped create the show people now know as The Ride Companion. I messaged Olly Wilkins and asked whether he would be interested in making a weekly show during lockdown. That became The Lockdown Companion after we riffed on some way worse names for the show. The Immunity Community wouldn't have had the same vibe huh!?
Olly and I were effectively getting to know each other while recording the podcast. The chemistry developed naturally and listeners became part of that journey. Lockdown Companion gave the podcast an identity, authenticity with the guests we were getting, a consistent format and a genuine sense of community. It eventually evolved into The Ride Companion.
Building the first Ride Companion studio
The first proper TRC studio looked far more impressive on camera than it did in real life!
It was essentially Olly’s mouldy garage. I once arrived to find him scraping mould from the ceiling before we recorded. It might have been a legit health hazard, but it gave the podcast a home. At the time, very few mountain bike podcasts had a dedicated video studio. Creating a recognisable environment helped establish The Ride Companion as more than an audio show and allowed us to take YouTube more seriously.
That decision shaped what TRC would eventually become: a mountain bike podcast designed to work equally well as a filmed conversation, an audio show and a source of individual stories and clips. I think it's crazy to see how far podcasting has come as a platform these days... it's far from just throwing an MP3 up on a hosting platform. Each episode has some strategy, a workflow and from my last count there's 72 different steps to a podcast going live. Madness.
The people who made TRC possible
Although I co-host the podcast, The Ride Companion has never been a one person project. Olly helped turn a collection of interviews into a proper show. His personality, knowledge and perspective became what people loved about it. Having Olly, somebody who is so core to MTB is only a positive thing. There's been many times we've not taken on a sponsor or even had a guests because it doesn't align with his/our values.
Doug and Naomi later made an enormous commitment to TRC, moving from Scotland and becoming an essential part of its development. Their creative and technical know how helped improve the production, build our studios and make our increasingly ambitious ideas possible. There have also been countless guests, sponsors, friends, brands and listeners who have supported the podcast throughout its life.
The Rob Warner episode that changed the podcast
Some episodes have a different feel to them and, the conversation with Rob Warner was one of those. Rob spoke with a previously unheard level of honesty and vulnerability that created something far beyond a conventional mountain bike interview. The episode became one of TRC’s first genuinely viral moments.
More importantly, it showed what the podcast could be at its best: funny, unpredictable and entertaining, but also capable of giving people the time and space to say something meaningful. Rob would later become part of Warner’s Race Companion alongside Olly and me... another project that would have seemed completely ridiculous when I was recording that original bedroom podcast!
From a podcast to TRC Media House
The Ride Companion is no longer simply a weekly podcast. Over the past decade, it has led to live events, films, Patreon, brand partnerships and new formats such as Warner’s Race Companion. Our first TRC Bike Night brought the mountain bike community together to watch films, meet riders and celebrate the sport away in a unique 'live event' way.
We’re now building TRC Media House into a wider home for mountain bike and action sports media. The next stage includes bringing other shows into the network, beginning with the Wyn TV Podcast. The ambition is to help creators turn great video content into sustainable podcasts, reach new audiences and connect suitable brands with some of the most authentic voices in the sport.
We’re still learning what TRC Media House might become, but its purpose comes from the same thing that sustained The Ride Companion: community.
The reality of podcasting for a living
It’s easy to look back at the highlights and make the journey appear much smoother than it was. Building the podcast involved financial stress like nothing I hopefully ever want to return to, long hours, burnout and plenty of occasions when giving up would have been the easier choice. For much of the last decade, I haven’t taken a proper holiday without thinking about the next recording, sponsor commitment or upload deadline.
A weekly podcast creates a responsibility that never completely disappears. The audience expects an episode, sponsors have trusted you to deliver and the people working alongside you depend on the business remaining sustainable. It's quite gnarly.
What comes next for The Ride Companion?
The honest answer is that we still don’t have a plan. That's the way we like it. We're small enough to adapt and big enough to make impact when we lean towards something.
We want to continue improving the podcast, developing the Race Companion, producing live events and growing TRC Media House into a home for more shows and creators.
We want to keep making mountain bike media that understands the culture without being afraid to reach beyond it. Most importantly, we want TRC to remain something the audience feels part of.
The Ride Companion might technically be “just a podcast,” but it has never felt like it belongs only to us. It belongs to everybody who has listened, watched, subscribed, supported a sponsor, attended an event, recommended an episode or stopped us for a conversation. Sounds cliche but the evidence is there that I've always said it's YOUR podcast too.
Thank you for an unbelievable ten years.
Peace and love.
This episode sponsors
Support Our Long Term Partners
Marin Bikes → marinbikes.com/gb
Other ways to support The Ride Companion
Grab merch from here on this website!
Subscribe to the clips channel
Subscribe to Olly's channel
Most importantly don't forget to hit SUBSCRIBE wherever you choose to listen and SHARE with your mates!
Leave a comment
Please note, comments must be approved before they are published